The Extra Mile: Jeff Landry charges taxpayers for his drive to work

If Jeff Landry wants Louisiana to believe his decision to investigate New Orleans Mayor-elect Cantrell’s spending is credible and based on a legitimate concern for the public’s interest, then he should first account for his own.

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“Attorney General Jeff Landry has continuously gone the extra mile to save taxpayers money,” his spokeswoman Ruth Wisher told The Louisiana Record, a blog published in Washington D.C. by conservative political operatives, in September 2016.

Wisher was responding to criticism leveled against Landry after it was revealed he had requested both a $700 monthly car allowance and reimbursement for his mileage. Landry’s request was quickly rejected by Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne.

“Attorney General Jeff Landry purchased a vehicle with his own money and receives mileage reimbursements. He chose this method because it is the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars,” Wisher claimed at the time. Of course, Landry was under no legal obligation to choose either of those “methods;” he could have simply charged for gasoline reimbursements.

Landry commutes to Baton Rouge from his home in New Iberia, a roundtrip of approximately 125 miles. In 2016, he billed the state the standard 51 cents a mile for each trip (in 2017, the rate increased to 53 cents a mile). Put another way, the Attorney General charges the state approximately $64 every day he drives from his home to his office and back.

In August of 2016, for example, Landry billed the state more than $1,100 for travel in his personal car.

In addition to capping mileage reimbursements at 99 miles a day, official state policy also prohibits employees, including officials, from receiving travel reimbursements if their residence is located more than thirty miles away from their office or outside of their office’s region, unless a determination is made that the arrangement is in “the best interest of the state.”

The Attorney General’s decision to maintain his residence in New Iberia may be in the best interest of his family, but it certainly is not in the state’s best interest to pay him between 51 to 53 cents a mile every time he travels to work and back, far more than the cost of a tank of gasoline.

The state of Louisiana employs nearly 50,000 people, and yet only one of those employees enjoys such an arrangement. To be sure, there is no evidence to suggest that Landry has broken any law, but, by refusing to receive a car allowance and opting instead to charge the public for mileage, he has broken with precedent and with the guidelines that apply to everyone else, including the policies of his own office.

The Bayou Brief obtained a copy of a document titled “Department of Justice Travel Tips,” which includes the following:

Landry’s decision to pursue an investigation of Cantrell is based entirely off of an anonymous complaint that was forwarded to him by Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro, a key ally and supporter of Cantrell’s opponent. Given that the expenses in question were identified first by Cantrell’s own office and reimbursed voluntarily and that public records reveal Cantrell’s colleagues on the city council also reimbursed expenses charged on their credit cards, to many, Landry’s pursuit of a criminal investigation appears to be nothing more than political grandstanding. This is bolstered by the fact that Landry announced “subpoenas” of public records, which, in Louisiana, are accessible as a fundamental right of all citizens, something his own office frequently fails to ensure.

His investigation into the Mayor-elect’s spending shouldn’t just call into question his political motivations, however; it should also force him to answer questions about the ways in which he has billed taxpayers for travel and food. Why was it necessary, for example, for Jeff Landry to charge taxpayers $239 a night for a room at the Windsor Court, which is over $100 more than the rate allowed under state policy?

Was it really necessary for Landry to charge the public $7.65 to drive fifteen minutes from a hotel in Houston to a meeting on coastal lawsuits? If there was ever a better or more ironic example of a public official squeezing every last nickel and dime they could out of the taxpayer, I doubt it would compete against that expense, which was charged to the state on September 1, 2016.

And why is it that Jeff Landry’s reimbursements for meals are always perfectly even numbers? Is it because he simply always charges the state the maximum allowed per meal no matter what, or is it because he is thoughtless with his tipping to wait staff? This is just one of many pages of examples:

If Landry wants the public to believe that his decision to investigate Cantrell’s spending is credible and based on a legitimate concern for the public’s interest, then he should first account for his own.

He could begin by explaining to the people of Louisiana why they have to pay for him to drive to work and why the rules that apply to everyone else do not apply to him.

Update: The Bayou Brief has subsequently learned that Attorney General Jeff Landry does, in fact, rely on a driver and security guard, Tommy Romero, and that he receives mileage reimbursements for traveling in his personal car while being driven by a paid state employee.